Behaviors… manliness | Dawn

Enough with the Kougies and Balaskes! Enough with the so-called manly behaviors that reek of malice and abusive logic! Anyone who wants to identify an old-fashioned manly behavior, an honest, good-natured, upright, polite and gallant behavior – because that’s what “manly” once meant, and let’s not discuss, for now, that this too was wrong and unfair to women – he has only to turn to… Euro 2024, the event that produces the news that occupies the collective subconscious of a large part of the planet’s population, male and female.

That’s why. The protagonists are the players of the Danish Men’s National Team, who refused an increase in their salaries in order to ensure the parity of their salaries with those of the Women’s National Team. According to the union, the female players signed a four-year contract with the federation ahead of the Euros, which will take effect immediately after the tournament, and which ensures they will receive equal compensation to their male counterparts. In order to make this possible, the male footballers accepted a reduction in their insurance coverage and refused a salary increase in order to redistribute resources equally with their female colleagues. The men’s team’s decision was unanimous and featured the biggest and best known: from Schmeichel, the goalkeeper, and Kjaer to Eriksen, the player whose heart had stopped at the start of the last Euro and now, having returned to English stadiums, he celebrated again the goal with his National Team in the premiere against Slovakia. Proving that, in addition to the miracles of science, which are now part of everyday life, there are also the daily actions that people themselves decide to take to change their lives.

In order not to remain a slogan, equality needs actions. Acts like this. Actions where someone privileged loses something, takes the initiative to lose something, precisely to achieve this equality. And when these… manly (dominant and gallant) acts become reality, the meaning of the words also changes: They become human behaviors, period and dash.